1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ovens in general, and in particular to a matchbox oven capable of providing continuous food cooking while minimizing heat loss.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conveyor oven typically has a first opening through which uncooked food enters and a second opening at the opposite end of the oven through which cooked food exits. A stainless steel conveyor belt is commonly used to carry food items through a heated cavity between the first and second openings. The conveyor belt extends past both openings sufficiently to allow safe insertion and retrieval of food items. This arrangement allows food items to be placed on the conveyor belt on a continuous basis to achieve sequential steady-state cooking.
When food items offered by a commercial foodservice operation such as a restaurant are to be cooked at the same heat transfer profile for the same amount of time, a conveyor oven is particularly advantageous. A foodservice personnel needs only set the temperature, blower speed and conveyor belt speed as necessary to cook the selected foods. After the above-mentioned three parameters have been set, the conveyor oven can be operated continuously without any further adjustments. As such, even a person unskilled in the art of cooking is able to prepare high-quality cooked food products simply by placing them on the conveyor belt of a conveyor oven. The ease of operation and high throughput make conveyor ovens highly desirable in restaurants and other commercial foodservice settings.
However, conveyor ovens also have their disadvantages. For example, most commercial foodservice operations offer a variety of food items, such as pizza, chicken, vegetables and pies. Even a single food order at a restaurant may include multiple types of food items. Conveyor ovens are very efficient when cooking similar food items, but not so for cooking a variety of food items that require vastly different cooking times and heat transfer profiles. In addition, conveyer ovens are not very energy efficient because the two openings allow tremendous heat loss during their operation, and the lost heat must be replaced in order to maintain a steady cooking temperature. Furthermore, the heat that escapes from conveyor ovens must be extracted, typically via an air conditioning system, so that the ambient temperature of the kitchen area in which the conveyor ovens reside does not increase beyond an uncomfortable level for foodservice personnel. All of the above adds to the cost of foodservice operations when using conveyor ovens.
Consequently, it would be desirable to provide a flexible oven that is energy-efficient as well as operationally efficient.